We have a small female ferret that had both adrenal glands removed last
April.  She was put on pred right after surgery and she healed really well.
We took her off the pred and she crashed.  Refused to eat unless force fed.
She lost almost 3/4 of a pound in several weeks.  Our vet ran some blood
tests on her and found that she was not producing a necessary hormone
required for digestion of food and maintaining a good appetite.  She was
placed on Florinef which is a drug used in the treatment of Addison's
Disease.  The double adrenalectomy brought on this condition.  She gets
1/10 of a .1 mg tablet every day.  Since it is very hard to divide a very
small tablet into 10 pieces, I dissolve the tablet in 3 cc's of water and
then give her 0.3cc each morning.  She is back to her old self, eating,
drinking and playing hard as she did before the surgery.  When she gets
into a squabble with one of the others, she becomes very worn out since
she produces no adrenaline.  She goes and hides and rest up and then back
at it.
 
Ferrets can survive without either adrenal gland.  Some never need the
Florinef but others do.  Our Smudge is great evidence of that.
 
Win and the horde of fuzzbutts
[Posted in FML issue 3298]